Ohio River blue catfish 6-30-06

Just got back from my fourth trip to the Ohio River. Thought I'd clean up on the blues because this exact time last year they were insane aggressive in the holes, biting everything. This time I got skunked. Caught some channels and flatheads, but no blues. ??? River rose five feet in the three days I was down there. The first day the current was fast enough that you had to let out 150 feet of line to get a three ounce sinker to touch down at 25 feet. By day three it took twice the weight and even more line. And that's using a two inch piece of cut shad. Is there such a thing as too fast of current for blue catfish? Used shad mostly, but also baby quillback and goldeye. We tried fronts and backs of holes up to 70 feet, shorelines next to holes, creek mouths, suspended and bottom fishing at the dam, side channels, flats around and behind an island, night and day fishing... The water temp is 79. Are they all spawning all at once? The bait seemed to be pressed into the slack areas, but all we caught there were the channels and flats. Which was great, of course, but we were after big blues! Where do the blues go in these conditions, this time of year? What did I do wrong? Any input would be great. I'm off to the lake now with the fam for a week (yeah, back-to-back fishing vacations... not bad), so if I don't respond right away, that's why.

We have not caught very many blues in the past 2-3 weeks. They are definately spawning. I have caught 3 in the past couple weeks and every one was all scraped up and bleeding. The flatties are just coming off nest and biting anything lively we throw at them, some nice ones too. My suggestion would be to focus on flats for the next couple of weeks until it gets a little warmer, then driftfish for the blues. thats my plans anyways

Dusky, post spawn blues are not crazy about warmer water. This said I always had the best luck in warm water, fishing the most current and current break areas. You'll notice that they tend to stack up at dams. I know it is because there is a lot of baitfish there, but also think it is cause they like the current. Also they tend to take to Live bait best after spawn especially shad. I got one in the fifteen pound range tonight out of heavy current on large shad hooked live. Vern

Its pretty much the same here in Bama. We went to our trustee lake last night and only caught 5-6 (the biggest was 12 lbs). We usually fill the live wells and rarely go home without a 20+ in the boat. My brother did have a monster run with his line. He fought it for about 10 minutes, but everytime it got close to the boat, it ran like hell. We're not sure if it was a blue, or a big striper because it got off before we could see it. Never saw a 28 year old cry like that.

I've been cauching alot of blues on the ohio lately. I found that they're staying in the same holes high water or fast current. I had to use an eight ounce wiegh instead of my usaul 3 ounce last week, but the river is dropping and the dam fishing is awesome. Be careful to stay away from the boils and empty valves, but I would through in them.